Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new albums, books and movies to come out this week.
Enjoy!
Best Albums
Broken Bells – After the Disco
For their second album as dynamic duo Broken Bells, Danger Mouse and James Mercer of Shins fame combine their arching melodies and sweet vintage synths with groovy bass-lines for a sound that’s a fusion of futuristic disco and rock. The final product, After the Disco, is a kaleidoscope of pop mixed with imagination, in what is surely the duo’s best album to date.
iTunes – $10.99
CEO – Wonderland
CEO’s second LP drifts somewhere between dreams and nightmares. It’s energetic and bouncy. It’s great to work to. In fact, I wrote this whole article while grooving to Wonderland’s other-worldly sounds. That alone deserves a nod in this week’s picks.
iTunes – $9.99
Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow
Bombay Bicycle Club has decided to reinvent itself with each of the albums its released, and while some of the previous efforts were charming, nothing has felt satisfactory. Rather than releasing their fourth album a year after A Different Kind of Fix, it seems like the group benefited from their time off with most the songs being written during Jack Steadman’s travels to Turkey, India, and Netherlands. Beat and loops get more of an emphasis on So Long, See You Tomorrow making it the groups most vibrant disc yet.
iTunes – $9.99
Best Books
All Joy And No Fun – The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
by Jennifer Senior
I don’t have any kids, and a recent trip to Disneyland kind put me off on the idea of having them for a while, but when I do this will be my reading list. Rather than taking a look on the effects of parenting on children, All Joy and No Fun examines the effects of children on their parents and how changes over the last 50 years have dramatically altered the roles of mothers and fathers, making them more complex than ever.
iTunes – $13.99
The UnAmericans: Stories
by Molly Antopol
One of the most promising collection of short stories lands this week from the young Molly Antopol, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. Antopol’s stories combine for a stunning exploration of characters shaped by history and the nature of disillusionment as failed dreams crack.
iTunes – $11.99
Extreme Medicine – How Exploration Transformed Medicine in the Twentieth Century
by Kevin Fong
All the blank unexplored places on our maps have been filled in over the last 200 years, but as man has pushed the boundaries of his physical limits, we’ve also been pushing the medical boundaries as well. In his book Extreme Medicine, Dr. Kevin Fong explores how medicine has been shape by mankind’s thirst for exploration. Like how the challenges of Arctic exploration created opportunities for breakthroughs in open heart surgery; battlefield doctors pioneering techniques for skin grafts, heart surgery, and trauma care; underwater and outer space exploration have revolutionized our understanding of breathing, gravity, and much more.
iTunes – $14.99
Best Movies
Thor: The Dark World
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Thor film, but Chris Hemsworth managed to win me over in Thor: The Dark World. There’s less cheesy love drama on Earth this time around, for starters. This time there are higher stakes – all of the Nine Realms are up for grabs. And Loki and Thor team up to take down an enemy even Odin couldn’t destory.
iTunes – $19.99
12 O’Clock Boys
The Wire offered one of the most stunning portraits of life in Baltimore (or any city), but did you know that there is a gang of dirt bike riders who perform death-defying stunts on the street while evading the police? It sounds out of place in the urban landscape of Charm City, but the documentary 12 O’Clock Boys follows Pug, a precocious youngster who will stop at nothing to join the gang.
iTunes – 12.99
Grand Piano
Grand Piano hasn’t even hit theaters stateside yet, but iTunes offers the thriller featuring Elijah Wood as a brilliant concert pianist suffering from stage fright. During a concert the pianist learns a sniper in the audience will shoot him if he plays a wrong note, in one of the most unique action movies this year. Want the complete opposite of an Elijah Wood and John Cusack pairing? Try Escape Plan.
iTunes – $12.99
